A WOMAN has split opinions online after booking her friend onto the wrong flight, and then expecting him to pay for new tickets.
The 18-year-old had booked return tickets for her friend, who she refers to as 'Jim', so he could join the group for a trip to Paris.
However, when it came time to fly home, it turned out that Jim had been booked onto an earlier flight and had already missed his journey.
After feeling guilty, she paid £165 to put him on a train to London, while she flew back with her friends.
However, after consulting with the rest of the group, she changed her mind and now believes it is Jim's fault for not paying attention or making any effort while his friends booked the trip in the first place.
The woman posted on Reddit to ask whether or not she was being unreasonable to ask Jim to pay her back for the ticket.
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She wrote: "I recently took a trip to Paris with a group of friends (8 in total, all 18, 6 girls and 2 boys).
"To make sure that everyone bought their tickets ok, we had a group zoom call to book them together.
"One of my friends, who we’ll call Jim, is a massive procrastinator, and although he insisted he wanted to come to Paris, would blow us off any time we wanted to have our group call.
"He never suggested times he could do it, and didn’t respond to messages half the time, so I eventually offered to book his ticket for him and get him to pay me back so that he wouldn’t end up paying more than everyone else if flight prices went up.
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"At the time, this was fine. He paid me back for the tickets, we got to Paris safely, and everyone enjoyed themselves.
"The problem came up when we were going home. Jim didn’t check his flight confirmation email (It was sent to him, not me) or check-in, and when we arrived at the airport we realised that I had accidentally booked him on a different flight to the rest of us and had already missed it.
"At this point we realised the cheapest and easiest way for him to get back to London was buying a train ticket.
"I felt so awful for booking his flight wrong that I paid for it, and he accepted it without offering to pay some or all of the money back to me.
"I completely believed that it was my fault and accepted the cost of my mistake, but when the rest of our friends found out about this they were furious with him.
"I talked to them about it and they explained that the way they see it, he was being childish by not co-operating with planning, and irresponsible to not read confirmation emails, or check-in to the flight in advance, so it isn’t my fault he missed the flight.
"They said that not even offering to pay the money back to me is being a bad friend and a bad person, and are considering not being friends with him at all because of what this says about him as a person.
"I still feel guilty, but I understand their perspective and am coming around to the idea that this situation may be Jim’s own fault. So would I be in the wrong if I now asked Jim to pay me back?"
The woman's post divided opinion with some on her side and others saying it was her all her fault.
Those who were on her side argued that Jim needed to become more responsible.
One said: "At the least, he needs to split the cost with you. At the least. He needs to figure out how to do things on his own."
Another said: "Don't mother this guy, he will always do this. It was his responsibility to check his booking."
However, others suggested that Jim was not in the wrong for simply expecting to have been booked on the same flight as his friends.
He said: "I don't think it was unreasonable of Jim not to look at the details given that he was traveling with such a large group and that it was never mentioned his he had a different flight time."
Another said: "If I was in a group of 12 and someone else bought my ticket, I'd assume I was on the same flights.
"His travel woes are ultimately your fault because you booked him on the wrong plane."
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Meanwhile, this woman sparked debate after she was invited on a friend's family holiday but refused to pay for anything.
A wife also divided opinion when she asked her husband to cancel his lads holiday that he had planned for four years.
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